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Primary Documents - Ems Telegram, 1870

The Ems
Telegram was ostensibly a telegram from the Prussian Kaiser, Wilhelm I, to
his Prime Minister
Otto von Bismarck which, when published (and as
anticipated by Bismarck) precipitated the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71.

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The
telegram's contents outlined the details of a disagreement between Wilhelm
and the French ambassador concerning the succession to the Spanish throne.
Bismarck subtly doctored the telegram to give the impression that each side
had insulted the other.

Text of the Ems Telegram,
sent by Heinrich Abeken of the Foreign Office under Kaiser Wilhelm's
Instruction to Bismarck

First, the Unedited
Version...

His Majesty the King has
written to me:

"Count Benedetti
intercepted me on the promenade and ended by demanding of me in a very
importunate manner that I should authorize him to telegraph at once that I
bound myself in perpetuity never again to give my consent if the
Hohenzollerns renewed their candidature.

I rejected this demand
somewhat sternly as it is neither right nor possible to undertake
engagements of this kind [for ever and ever]. Naturally I told him
that I had not yet received any news and since he had been better informed
via Paris and Madrid than I was, he must surely see that my government was
not concerned in the matter."

[The King, on the advice of
one of his ministers] "decided in view of the above-mentioned demands not to
receive Count Benedetti any more, but to have him informed by an adjutant
that His Majesty had now received from [Leopold] confirmation of the news
which Benedetti had already had from Paris and had nothing further to say to
the ambassador.

His Majesty suggests to
Your Excellency that Benedetti's new demand and its rejection might well be
communicated both to our ambassadors and to the Press."

Next, Bismarck's
Published, Doctored Version

"After the news of the
renunciation of the Prince von Hohenzollern had been communicated to the
Imperial French government by the Royal Spanish government, the French
Ambassador in Ems made a further demand on His Majesty the King that he
should authorize him to telegraph to Paris that His Majesty the King
undertook for all time never again to give his assent should the
Hohenzollerns once more take up their candidature.

His Majesty the King
thereupon refused to receive the Ambassador again and had the latter
informed by the adjutant of the day that His Majesty had no further
communication to make to the Ambassador."